Three points in New England plus three points in Chicago equal a chance for continuing road wizardry as Kansas City goes for a nine-point sweep away from home against Real Salt Lake on Saturday.
"We've one more game on this road trip, and it would be a letdown for us to give away points that we've worked so hard to gain," said midfielder Sasha Victorine. "If we can go to Real Salt Lake and finish off this road trip with points, that will put ourselves in a good situation where we have a lot more games at home."
Despite the positive results, the Wizards have been living on the edge, surviving poor opening minutes against the Revolution and the Fire, an ailment center back Jimmy Conrad said will be cured.
"I think we come out and learn from the first 30 minutes of the two previous games. We know that we need to come out putting our best foot forward," he said, also alluding to preventing any glimpse of a letdown. "It starts with holding the ball; I don't think we've held the ball that well and when we turn it over we're already on our back heel to start. That doesn't put us in a good position to do good things.
"If we go out with the right attitude right from the get-go, then we put ourselves in a good position to do good things instead of waiting for us to give up a couple good plays, couple good shots. New England didn't score on their chances, but Chicago did. I don't think there's going to be any letdown in that capacity."
Real Salt Lake, and their dangerous attack led by MLS legend Jason Kreis, are no patsies at home currently riding a four-game undefeated streak and overall gaining points in eight of their 10 matches at Rice-Eccles stadium, including a recent 3-0 triumph over FC Dallas, current second-place sitters in the Western conference.
"They play well at home and have put a lot of teams in trouble and have got some good results. So it's not going to be an easy game at all. We have a job to do, and we'll need to put a full 90 minutes in," echoed Victorine.
Victorine and his midfield cohort, the ever steady Kerry Zavagnin, will have to continue working to control the pace of the match and linking Kansas City's back line with the lethal front line combination of Scott Sealy and Josh Wolff. This crucial job, especially on the road, has been made easier by Wolff's trademark buzzing around the ball.
"He's a guy you can get the ball to and he'll take some time on it and allow you to get some energy back and run off of him to create opportunities," he said.
The Wizards and their Eastern conference combatants have had a premium on energy since the All-Star break battling each other head-to-head and in the standings. K.C.'s current form has earned them a spot in a four-team battle for first place in the East as only four points separate K.C., D.C., Chicago, and New England.
"D.C. is a good team, and we would expect that they're going to keep winning, and the same with [New England] and Chicago," said Victorine in a nod to his side's formidable foes. "We're in a mentality that Columbus is at the bottom, as many times that they can lose and we can win, it's best for us, the same for New York. Even though D.C. is staying with us, New York ended up dropping three points."
Winners of four of their last six, Kansas City is piling on the points at the right time as it heads into the final 10 matches of the season. Additionally, six of the Wizards' last nine, after Saturday's encounter with Real Salt Lake, will be played in the friendly confines of Arrowhead stadium.
The Wizards could come home shining having taken nine points out of nine on a high mileage, high competition road trip.
And with Conrad and Victorine's insistence on avoiding previous pitfalls, the Wizards seem to be in no danger of resting on their laurels.
Robert Rusert is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
